a request for WordWiz777

no Civil War, por favor

* * *

Peter was staring at his screen, brow furrowed and heart nearly stopping. His eyes scanned the page that he had pulled up, desperate for what he was reading to be wrong.

Nat had encouraged him to go through the Hydra files since he was bored, and he figured, 'what could go wrong'.

On the computer, in bold:

AGENTS PARKER, MARY AND PARKER, RICHARD

His parents were agents for Hydra? 

No, that couldn't be. His parents weren't bad, they couldn't be. Peter wouldn't believe it. 

Taking deep breaths to slow his panicking heart, he moved the mouse and clicked on a tab labeled 'missions.'

Peter first had had to translate everything from Russian

His eyes scanned over all of the words, lingering on some and ignoring others.

Yeah, there was no doubt about it. His parents were agents of Hydra, trained to kill and show no mercy.

Peter stopped for a second when he saw one of their last missions, dated early 2000s.

_____

Super-Soldier Serum, 67

The Parkers have volunteered their adoptive son for the 67th attempt at copying the Super-Soldier Serum used on Steven Rogers (click here to view his file). Peter Parker has the ideal genes considering his biological father, and we believe that this will further help Project Son.

We hope that this will go well, and we say good-bye to the Parkers in five days, after the trial run. We have no use for them any more, and Mary in particular has grown soft. 

Peter will be released into the care of May and Ben Parker should it go wrong, and if the experiment goes as we expect, will go for training under the Winter Soldier.

See here

_____

Peter scrunched up his eyebrows. Biological father? Adoptive son? He wasn't a Parker?

He had so many questions, but he pushed them down and clicked on the last link. It brought him to another file, dated just a few days after the other one. 

_____

67, Parker

The experiment has gone well, but not well enough. It gave the child a boosted immune system and limited other abilities. The child will be given to May Parker since he is too valuable to be killed.

The Parkers have boarded their plane. It will be going down in thirty minutes. They do not know.

Project Son has been abandoned.

_____

So, his parents weren't really his parents, he had super soldier serum in his blood, and his what... caretakers? Had been assassinated by Hydra? Peter wanted more answers.

Peter clicked on the link. It forwarded him to yet another file, but this time it required a little hacking to get into. Clearly, Hydra took precautions with this file, and didn't want it read.

_____

Project Son

This is an abandoned project.

The Winter Soldier was our first successful super-soldier, so we have been trying to recreate the results of that project. 

Given that the Soldier has the ideal genes for such an experiment, we have taken his and combined them with another agent's. His son was given to the Parkers and kept a secret from the soldier. 

We had high hopes for the son, but once he was given a serum and failed the necessary tests, we sent him to May Parker. She does not know of Mary and Richard being Hydra.

We are going to watch him to see if the serum takes time, but he is no longer useful for Project Son, meaning that he does not have potential to be stronger than the Soldier.

View Peter's file here.

_____

Peter was taking it all in, terrified. He was not a Parker, but... a Barnes? How was that possible? The Winter Soldier, James Buchanan Barnes, was his father.

According to Hydra files, of course. 

He leaned back in his chair, staring blankly at his computer screen. He folded his hands and spun around, exhaling slowly.

Curiosity was begging Peter to click an view his file, but in a quick motion he turned his computer off and thought for a moment.

His spider bite.... did he only survive it because of the serum that he was given as a young child?

The more that Peter thought about it, the more that everything in his childhood made sense. He always had been just a little bit stronger, even if he never showed it. May never talked about his 'parents', and Ben avoided the topic, too. 

He looked like the Parkers, but only enough so that no suspicions would be roused. Brown hair, brown eyes. It was basic, but it worked.

Peter was shocked out of his thinking by his phone ringing. It was Tony, so he picked up.

"Hey kid," Tony started, "Karen sent me a notification that your heart rate was up. You okay?"

Nodding, despite being on a phone call, Peter responded, "Uh, yeah, yeah." He spaced out for a bit before speaking again. "Hey, can I come over real quick?"

"Of course, you don't have to ask. You sure everything is alright?"

"Yup! See you in a few." 

Peter hung up quickly and left his bedroom.

He gave May a brief answer when she asked where he was going, and left as soon as he could. Peter walked down the streets with his hands shoved in his pockets, and avoided eye contact with people on the subway. 

When he got to the Avengers Compound, he had to take some deep breaths to calm down. He walked in with a mask of confidence on his face, and Peter tried to avoid any people that wanted to speak with him.

Peter burst into the labs that he and Tony spent most of their time, and when the mentor looked up, he smiled.

"Hey Pete! You sounded a little out of it on the phone. You're absolutely positive that everything is A-okay?"

The young spider child couldn't help but roll his eyes. 

"Yes. Although, If you wanna make me happier..." Peter trailed off and got a little nervous.

Tony tilted his head. "What?"

"Can we do a DNA test?" Peter asked in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, but, kid... you know your parents. It'd be a little pointless."

Peter sighed. "Just, please?"

Tony relented, and soon they were off. It wasn't state-of-the-art, but it was going to do the job. As they got closer to finishing, Peter felt his heart beat faster, and grew quiet.

As much as he hoped that Hydra had been lying, wouldn't it be cool to actually have a father? A living one?

Peter was torn out of his fantasies as Tony stopped working.

"Well, Peter, we're done. You ready?"

Peter bit his lip. "Yeah. Yeah, I should just do it."

Tony looked at him. "What brought this up?"

"Just something I saw online." Peter said dismissively, waving a hand. He grabbed a tube and started spitting in it.

Peter waited for a while in the common area while the test was processing. 

When he went to the kitchen, Peter could sense someone behind him. Peter spun on his heel, only to meet Bucky.

"Oh." he squeaked. "Sorry,"

Bucky smiled faintly. "No worries, Peter. Hey, when are you planning on pranking Sam again?"

Peter paused his exiting,  "Pretty soon. Why?"

"Can I join you?"

"Sure." Peter shrugged. "Clint might join, too."

Bucky crinkled his nose. "Ugh,"

Peter flashed a smile before going back down to the lab. Tony was there, by the DNA test. He was squinting at a paper.

"Hey Pete, uh... the results came up."

Peter dropped what he was holding and dashed over to the table that Tony was at. "What's it say?"

Tony turned to Peter. "It says that Barnes is your father. Got something to explain to me, Peter?"

The kid nodded. "I was going through the Hydra files that Nat leaked, and I found some files on Mary and Richard Parker. It said that they're agents, and aren't my parents, and that I was made for some weird project as a sort-of better Winter Soldier. I just wanted to make sure before I said anything."

Tony sighed. "Geez, kiddo. You've had such a rough life already. Do you want to tell Barnes?"

Peter sucked in air. "I don't know. Maybe?"

"You should. You don't have to, but... He'll probably want to know."

Peter took that in, and got back to building. When the pair was called up for dinner, he found himself avoiding Bucky's eyes. 

It's not that Peter wasn't thrilled, because the two were pretty close (particularly when it came to messing with Sam), but every time he saw Bucky, he wanted to blurt out, "I'm your son!" But he couldn't.

Not yet.

* * * 

It was a few days later and Peter was at the compound again, and had a day planned with Bucky. It was a prank day, specifically. Clint had chickened out when he heard that Bucky would be with Peter.

He climbed up into the vents and met with Barnes in a pre-determined spot. Bucky didn't seen too comfortable. 

"Why couldn't we meet in a room with a high ceiling?" Bucky grumbled, crouching painfully.

Peter grinned. "Cause what's the fun in that?"

They set off, crawling towards Wilson's room. When they got there, the vents opened up a little. The two paused, looking down into the room.

One of the walls was painted red, and a bed was pushed against it. There were a few pictures hanging on another wall, with a dresser in a corner and a desk on the wall by the door. There were a few bookshelves, surprisingly.

It was nice.

"So, what's the plan?" Bucky whispered. 

Peter thought for a moment, before digging in the bag that he had taken with him. He took out a bag of small chickens.

Bucky looked at Peter, confused. 

"Confuse, don't abuse." Peter said, handing the bag to Bucky and taking out one for himself. "Hide them around his room."

They dropped out of the vents, and set off. 

An hour and seventy chickens later, Peter and Bucky hauled themselves back into the vents, and not a moment too soon.

The door opened, and Sam walked in. He set a bag down on his bed, them paused and turned around.

He picked up a little chicken that had fallen on the floor, and put it next to his stuff. he went to grab a book, only to be met with another chicken. 

As he turned around in a slow circle, he kept seeing them. 

"What the hell?" He whispered, slowly backing out of his room. 

Up above, Peter and Bucky started laughing, highly enjoying themselves. Peter liked this, just the two of them spending time together.

Peter stopped then, and opened his mouth.

"What?" Bucky asked, stopping his laughing slightly.

Peter met the man's eyes. "I'm your son."

Bucky chuckled. "Not gonna fool me that easily." He stopped when he saw Peter's face. "You're serious?"

"Yeah."

It was quiet then, quiet enough that they could hear Nat yelling at Clint in one of the other rooms. Peter got more and more nervous, and finally, Bucky spoke.

"You're sure?"

Peter nodded, and took out a crumpled piece of paper with the results from his DNA test.

Bucky took it, and studied it.

"This is the best day of my life." He said softly, looking up to meet Peter's eyes. Both of them were keeping tears back.

Peter then smiled widely, and they hugged each other. 

"I can't believe I have a son." Bucky whispered. "Me! I, Bucky Barnes, have a son!"

"And I have a father." Peter said happily.

It was hard to tell which one of the two was the happiest,  since at that moment neither could fathom feeling happier, up in those vents. 

* * *

In the following weeks, they grew even closer than they had been. They started acting like a father and son duo, too.

Although Tony was so incredibly happy that Peter had finally caught a break in his traumatic life, he couldn't help but feel a little bitter. After all, even though Tony thought of Peter as a son, Peter would never look up to Tony as his dad. Tony would never be able to call Peter his son, and he couldn't help but feel a wave of sadness because of it.

He never showed it, though. After all, Stark men are made of Iron.

He just watched as Peter and Barnes spent time together. Sure, Peter still hung out at the labs just as much as he had before, but Tony couldn't help but feel as if something had changed.

* * *